*Sorry this is so late. I had some potentially worrying news yesterday and dealt with it the way I deal with things: by doing stupid cr*p, which meant I spent the morning finishing outdoor holiday decorations. I hope Drak forgives me posting this so late.

Also, will 60 guilders, and whoever else sent me blog posts that haven’t run re-send with “blog post” in the title? Thunderbird is a pain to search, and right now all I can find is William Lehman’s and Foxfier’s. – SAH*

The American Race – Drak Bibliophile

No, not the Indianapolis 500 or other auto races.

Awhile back some idiot over on AccordingToHoyt said that Sarah Hoyt isn’t a real American because she wasn’t born in America. At the same time, this idiot appears to be saying that American Indians aren’t real Americans because they aren’t part of the American Race.

So what is the American Race if there is “such an animal”?

First we have to consider “what is the English Race” as the Founders generally considered themselves English and their major gripe with England was that Americans were not treated as Englishmen should be treated.

Well, the English can be considered to be the descendants of the Angles, Saxons and Jute tribes that conquered the area now considered England. Yet, we can’t forget the Celts that lived in that region. John McWhorter, author of Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English , points out that spoken English has major differences from any other Germanic languages. These differences can’t be traced to other languages known to have been an influence on English, such as French or Latin. Mr. McWhorter points out that spoken English shows influence from Celtic languages so it is very likely that the Angles-Saxons-Jutes must have ruled over a good sized population of Celtic speakers which influenced the development of spoken English.

So the English race is a combination of Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Celtics. However, we can’t forget the Danes who made successful invasions of England. While the Anglo-Saxon Kings managed to conquer the invaders, the English language of those areas shows marked differences from the language elsewhere in England. Therefore, we have to add the Danes to the mixture that is the English race.

Then we come to the last successful invasion of England by the “Frenchified Vikings” known as the Normans with their Flemish men-of-arms. Not only did they “add” to the English language, they added their genes to the English race. Then we have those Scotsmen and Welsh who didn’t stay in their “proper places” and added their genes to the English race.

So even before the English pushed their way into North America, they could be considered mutts.

Even before America became a nation, plenty of other groups found their way into the developing American Race. There were the Dutch already in America who got conquered by the English. The so-called Pennsylvania Dutch (actually Germans) who found their way to America followed by other German groups. French Protestants found their way to America. Paul Revere’s family was originally from France. Even before the Revolution, we got plenty of Scotsmen who didn’t like living directly under the English Crown. [Note from Sarah: there were a lot of Portuguese, also in the New England Region, apparently escaping the Napoleonic invasion. But also a lot of British immigrants imported Portuguese servants (this was a thing in England, too, as early as the 1500s.) Curiously one of the heroes of the American revolution was Portuguese. I don’t remember his name, but since his claim to fame was being able to single-handedly carry a cannon, and since he came from Azores, I figure he’s one of Larry’s relations – SAH]

Of course, let’s not forget the American Indians. While Americans weren’t too nice to them, plenty of them married into American families or otherwise became part of the developing American society.

So even before we kicked the English Crown out of America, the American Race was a race of mutts.

Afterwards, Americans welcomed into the US plenty of people from Europe. More Germans, Italians, Irish, French and others. While there were some rough spots, in general Americans welcomed these people and allowed them to be part of the American Race.

Still Sarah and others are correct, these people were allowed to be part of the American Race because they accepted the American Ideals. As long as they accept the Ideals, Americans as a group didn’t care if their ancestors were Polish, etc.

Our problems today appear to be that some “born-Americans” don’t accept the Ideals and those “born-Americans” don’t see the need for Immigrants, legal or illegal, to accept the Ideals that make us Americans.

IMO those people who see a difference between themselves and people like Sarah who while born elsewhere accepts the American Ideals, show themselves to be Not-Americans even if their ancestors have been here since 1776.

Note, comments and corrections are welcome.